Unconsciousness tends to lead to many things. A lack of movement, a period of recovery, and most importantly, a period for your brain to reflect on events through dreams. For me, dreams always meant remembering every mistake I made, and every death I inadvertently caused. Normally, I could avoid dreaming through meditation or supplements in order to rest. But, I had no such chance before falling into unconsciousness. Thus, the nightmares began.

Within my nightmare, I relived the fishing hamlet. The straw that broke the camels back, so to say. Master Wilhem told us that the corpse of a great one had washed ashore, and that strange creatures had begun to appear to defend it, terrorizing the fishing hamlet it resides in. We were told to kill every single one we found, and to search their cranial cavity for eyes, to see if that was an indicator for ascension. It was only after the fact that we discovered that those creatures were people, still completely sane, just changed so to the presence of the great one. What’s more disturbing is what happened once we found the corpse.

From within the bloated form, a figure emerged. We believed it to be one of the creatures feeding off the body, so we killed it. Only it wasn’t a creature: It was the great one’s child. It had sacrificed its life in order for its child to survive, and we butchered it in cold blood. My eyes filled with tears, and all I could think was why? Why did master Wilhem, a man I looked up to, would want us to massacre these innocent people? As the sun began to set upon the ruined fishing hamlet, I screamed.

I awoke screeching at the top of my lungs. I could feel tears stinging the corners of my eyes, and the sheets I had rested upon were tangled in my frenzy to get up. However, it was much harder due to the cast upon my arm. Wait… why was I in a bed? How did I get a cast upon my arm? I realized right then and there that something had happened. Had I been rescued? Or had I been captured to study? Maybe I had been arrested for how brutally I killed that strange creature?

As I calmed down and began to ask myself questions, I heard what sounded like footsteps, and heard the door handle to the room I was in begin to jiggle. I quickly looked around the room, and found an armoire. I quickly crammed myself within, hoping it would be enough to hide from what ever was coming through the door.
*click*.

The door opened and in rushed whatever was making the noise. For some reason, now that I could hear it clearer, it sounded like little claws clacking across the floor. “Is everything alright? I heard a commotion in here.” it spoke. I remained within my hiding place, keeping as quiet as possible as it questioned itself as to what was going on.
“wait, where did it go?It couldn’t have disappeared, so where is it? It didn’t jump out the window, there would be glass everywhere if it did, and it definitely didn’t come out the door. Is it hiding? Or can it teleport? Twilight needs to know about this. HEY TWILIGHT!” For such a small creature, it sure had a set of lungs on it. My ears are ringing louder than the bells of the loudest clocktower. Wait, I hear more movement. This time it sounds like hooves.

“Is everything ok spike? ”
“not really, the creature is missing.”
“What?! How?! It couldn’t have gotten out of the window, as there is no glass broken, and it could have gotten out the door, it was locked! ”
“Maybe it’s hiding? It sounded scared when I heard it. Or maybe it can teleport?”
“You’re right. This could still be bad though. I’ll stay here, see if I can find it, you go get the girls. Tell them it’s awake.”

“You can count on me Twi. After all, I’m your number one assistant!” I can hear the smugness in his voice through the armoire, as it’s little claws begin to scurry away, and out the door. After the smaller creature is gone, the larger one begins to search, seeing if I left any clues behind, indicating as to where I went. As it nears the armoire, I prepare to jump out.

As it gets ready to open the armoire, I burst out, catching it by surprise. I stumble over it, careful not to hurt it and sprint out the door. I then slam it behind me and use the key they left in it (very foolishly) to lock it. As I hear shouts of surprise and protest from behind the door, I scurry down the stairs, and into… a library? No no, there is no time for curiosity, only escape. I see the exit and burst through it, into the busy streets filled with… more colorful small horses?! Are there no people in this world?!

Nevermind that, I need to get out of here. I turn around and see the building I just escaped from is a tree. You know what, I’m not even going to question it, I’m just going to run. As I sprint through the streets, weaving in between the horses, I hear many cries of shock and anger, but not a single cry of fear. This world is truly strange. I’m almost out of the town until I hear a southern drawl.

“Hold it right there ya varmint!”
“stop trying to run so we can kick your butt!”
“Um, dashie, I don’t think we should hurt it. The poor thing is probably just scared out of its poor mind.””I agree darling, violence should never be a first resort.”
“Yeah! Especially if we wanna befriend it and through it a party and give it lots of sweets and make it happy and-”
“ok, I get it girls, talk first, kick weird deer monster but later”
Great. More of them. “Please, I just want to-“
As I speak, their eyes widen, telling me they didn’t expect me to be literate.

“WOWIE! It can talk! Now we can ask it questions like when it’s birthday is or what it’s favorite sweet is or what video game it’s a reference to!”
“Yes I ca- wait what?”
“Huh. Guess no butt kicking after all.”
“Girls, I got back to the library, and twilight was locked in the room! I got her out, but now it’s free and we need to find it! Wait. Oh, you found it.”
“And I’m glad they did. Now that we know you can talk, I want to ask you some questions. Please, we aren’t going to hurt you. Just follow me back to my library, and we can talk like civilized creatures.”

I sigh, wincing as I put too much pressure on my bad leg. “Ok. I’m sorry.” As they begin to walk towards the tree, I follow, being tailed by the blue winged horse. I just hope I won’t regret this decision.

Author's Note

Let me know if you have any complaints about this story.

FYI, this story takes place pre- alicornification.